Literacy Boost Bangladesh: Baseline Report 2012

In Bangladesh, reading is a competency expected to be mastered by primary school students in both Bangla and English. Curriculum expectations set out that children should be fluent in reading both languages by the end of grade two, but Save the Children staff observe that fluency in Bangla with reading comprehension only occurs by grade 4 and grade 5 or later for English.

To address this situation, Save the Children began planning Literacy Boost in Meherpur District of Bangladesh in 2011 and began implementation in 2012. This intervention works with teachers and communities to improve children’s reading skills. The Literacy Boost Assessment features a set of adaptable early grade assessments used to describe the skills present when Literacy Boost begins and chart progress throughout the intervention.

This report details the reading skills and characteristics of the 623 grade 3 students in 18 randomly assigned Literacy Boost interventions and 14 control schools in March 2012. Both target and control schools span government primary school (GPS), registered non-government primary schools (RNGPS), and Madrassas. They also span the 5 unions of the district and urban Meherpur.